In the May 11 & 25 SN: High-tech cricket farming, AI learns from Minecraft, looking for lithium, a new hominid species is named, signs of life in dead pig brains, Cherokee cave texts decoded, water molecules on the moon and more.

Memorable Shot: Smallpox vaccine has lasting effect

The threat that the smallpox virus could be used by terrorists as a biological weapon has become a cornerstone of modern angst. Now, a research team finds reason to assuage some of that anxiety: People vaccinated against smallpox decades ago retain significant antibody and immune-cell responses against the dangerous virus.

"We're finding long-term immunity," says Mark Slifka of Oregon Health and Science University in Beaverton. At last week's meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Washington, D.C., Slifka and his colleague Erika Hammarlund reported the results of their survey of more than 300 people who had received one or more smallpox vaccinations over the past 75 years.

After a global immunization campaign against smallpox in the 1960s and 1970s, the disease was declared eradicated in 1980, and vaccinations were stopped. Fearful of an attack with the smallpox virus, however, the U.S. government recently began immunizing soldiers and health-care workers w

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